Nonprofits and officials to weigh options to boost local wood-based industry

Wildfires have brought renewed urgency

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Danny Nelson of Warner Enterprises Inc. uses a chainsaw to cut down trees in a privately-owned forest to reduce the risk of wildfire in upper Magalia on Feb. 21. (Camille von Kaenel — Enterprise-Record)

Local groups are hoping to bring more technologies that can use and commercialize wood products back to Butte County amid increased urgency around forest health.

The effort dovetails with renewed state-wide interest in removing vegetation from some of California’s forested communities following the devastating wildfires of recent years. Government officials and experts are increasingly considering the development of new wood product industries to make use of the biomass coming out of forests. But many rural communities in California still lack the infrastructure and workforce following the decline of the timber industry and the closure of local sawmills and biomass power plants.

The Butte County Fire Safe Council, which has expanded after the Camp Fire, has wanted to revitalize local projects. Now, the initiative is gaining steam: State and local government representatives as well as other interested parties are set to go over options at a workshop on March 18. (The meeting will likely be reduced in size or run virtually to limit the risk of spreading COVID-19, but it is still scheduled.)

“Everyone was talking about bringing in a biomass facility, but it’s just not happened,” she said. “If we don’t rally, it won’t happen. If not us, then who? If not now, then when?”

In Butte County, logs have nearly nowhere to go.

The area’s sole biomass power plant, Pacific Oroville Power Biomass, shut down in 2012 amid an investigation into violations of rules protecting the environment and high costs compared to other renewable energy sources. There are a few sawmills, mostly run by Sierra Pacific Industries, but they’ve been swamped. Tens of thousands of trees burned in the Camp Fire have had to be trucked hours away. The high cost of the transport has been hampering the process. The upcoming mandatory removal of hazard trees from private property, a government-funded project that has hit snags, is likely to continue exposing the gap.

State-wide, the number of sawmills in California has gone down from around 100 a couple decades ago to 25, said Rich Gordon, the president and CEO of the California Forestry Association. Similarly, around 23 biomass power plants are operational out of 52 facilities, according to a presentation in front of the California Energy Commission.

A few local solutions have been popping up, like the use of a pile-burning method to create biochar, a charcoal that is beneficial for soils and stores carbon.

The creation or revitalization of a full-blown facility, though, would take much more time and money. Previous efforts have faltered because of the high costs.

One technology currently under discussion is called a heating and cooling district, which is a system powered by wood chips. It is common in Europe but has not caught on in the United States. With the system in place, one truck load of wood chips could provide a week’s power for the civic center the town of Paradise is considering building as part of its long-term recovery plan. Town officials have been a part of the conversation, said DeAnda.

Other projects could be a micro-grid or the revitalization of POPI.

The goal of the upcoming meeting is get on the same page, said Hilary Sanders, of the Sierra Institute for Community and Environment. Her group has been helping facilitate since December with a grant from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy.

“These conversations started before the Camp Fire, and they’ve been shifted and delayed,” she said. “There’s definitely more urgency now.”

The Fire Safe Council has stepped up its lobbying efforts, too: At a recent board meeting, the group agreed to send a letter to the California Energy Commission. The agency is mapping out how the state will meet the target of 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2045 that was set out in recent legislation. One of the scenarios under consideration includes less biomass power than another, partly because wind and solar are considered more clean. The letter the Butte County Fire Safe Council signed on to says that casting biomass power aside “ignores the plight of rural communities.”

“The big driver is we want to see healthy forests as a result, and that will benefit the economy and peoples’ safety from wildfires,” said DeAnda.

Camille von Kaenel covers Camp Fire recovery. She is a corps member with Report for America, a national non-profit organization that helps fund local journalists. She's happy to be back hiking the hills and mountains of her home state of California.